I'm working with a graduate class in Action Research and am looking for case studies to improve the next offering. I want to include a set of cases that cover a variety of industries (healthcare, education, energy, etc.), areas of the world, and purposes (e.g., literacy, health, immigration, language, civil rights, safety, community development, parenting, disaster response, etc.). I'd like to find a few AR projects conducted within for-profit businesses that emphasize a participatory approach and/or the research element (inquiry, reflection, evaluation, and re-design for next action cycle). This would differentiate these cases from those focused almost exclusively on problem ID & analysis, action planning, and implementation (i.e., typical OD) that do not include a robust reflective, evaluative, re-design and new experimentation component NOR an emphasis on research and knowledge-sharing within academic or professional circles.
Case studies that illuminate roles, scope, and methodology would be very useful to students trying to understand and differentiate AR as a culture of inquiry, a research method, and as a project management approach from a practitioner's standpoint.
We have adopted a typology of AR approaches that does not attempt to create discrete, non-overlapping categories but rather to draw out major themes within the AR tradition. It includes emancipatory AR (EAR), participatory AR (PAR), and scientific-pragmatic AR (SPAR). A SPAR approach would typically be used for projects situated in for-profit businesses. These are often promoted or thought of as having a participatory flavor, yet they are rarely done "by the people, for the people" as might be expected in a community-based PAR project. Many for-profits will have time charging issues regarding participation. They may have a functional group responsible for conducting a program, which might request controlled participation in a focus group or steering committee, while retaining authority to act and accountability to higher level sponsors. I do have a case in mind, of affinity groups that receive a very small sponsorship from the company and then are left to devise, promote, and share their own action agenda.
Thoughts? Thanks so much for your ideas and comments.
Patricia Millar
Organization Development Senior Staff, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Faculty, University of Phoenix
Doctoral Student, Fielding Graduate University